By Kennedy Maize After more than a year in process, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week (Dec. 18) laid out a policy to facilitate co-location of data centers and power plants on the PJM Interconnection’s interstate high-voltage transmission grid. It could take nearly at least as long to see the new rules in action. … More FERC to PJM: Come on, baby, do the co-location

By Kennedy Maize President Trump’s war on wind power, articulated on his first day in office, has hit an administrative reversal in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Judge Patti Saris earlier this month (Dec. 8) struck down a major portion of Trump’s “temporary” across-the-board freeze on federal permits for offshore and … More Court clobbers Trump’s wind vendetta

By Henry Sokolski Although commentators have extensively critiqued President Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy, they’ve neglected what’s missing. Throughout the document’s 33 pages, there is no mention of nuclear extended deterrence and nonproliferation. That’s worrisome. America’s security has long depended on the proper treatment of these two related matters. Ignoring them or misconstruing their … More Guest Commentary: What Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy Missed

By Kennedy Maize In a little-noticed proceeding, the Department of Energy in October again moved to centralize and federalize electricity generation. In a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, DOE attacked FERC’s policy of recognizing the right of Indian tribes to veto hydropower projects on tribal land. The DOE letter on tribal authorities, including … More Tribal sovereignty and DOE’s latest electric power grab

By Kennedy Maize Construction Work in Progress (CWIP,  pronounced “quip”) is a nasty spawn of utility accounting, encouraging sloppiness, sloth, and avarice in building practices. That’s the take in a new study by the conservative Manhattan Institute, “The Hidden Tax on Your Power Bill.” “Construction Work in Progress, or CWIP, is the most influential energy … More CWIP: “FERC candy” and pernicious accounting practices

By Kennedy Maize President Donald Trump has launched a national industrial policy backing artificial intelligence in a self-proclaimed race against China for world AI dominance. It’s called the “Genesis Mission” (not to be confused with the 1997 Sci Fi Channel TV series Mission Genesis). Trump on Thanksgiving week (Nov. 24) promulgated Executive Order 14303, “Launching … More AI: Trump’s “Manhattan Project”?

By Kennedy Maize Just as the White House is proclaiming a national artificial intelligence industrial policy to challenge China, the frenzy for AI may be waning. Proliferating predictions of a bursting AI bubble are entirely speculative, such as a recent warning from the Bank of England. Real evidence is now increasing that the inflated expectations … More The AI bubble may be in bad trouble

By Kennedy Maize Donald Trump wants Americans to use more energy. In their cars. In their homes. On the job. President Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in the gaudy oval office on Wednesday (Dec. 3) announced a roll-back on fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks, the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) rules. … More Trump’s energy efficiency dead end

By Kennedy Maize The Trump administration’s implicit “coal’s costs don’t count” policy advances. The Department of Energy has expanded its assault on electric consumers in the upper Midwest in order to keep a dead coal plant walking. The Environmental Protection Agency has kicked a hazardous and toxic coal ash can down the road to beyond … More In Trumplandia where coal is king, DOE and EPA genuflect

By Kennedy Maize Last July, President Trump announced he had reached a massive trade deal with Japan that would lower the tariffs he had imposed on the country. In return, Japan would, among other concessions, make a “massive” $550 billion investment in the U.S., although the details were sketchy. In September, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick … More Donald J. Trump and the artifice of the deal